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Grazing Basics and Animal Behavior Discussed at First Grazing Roundtable

Posted: July 2, 2012

Dr. Kathy Soder, animal scientist with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service also known as the Pasture Lab located on Penn State’s campus, joined livestock grazers and aspiring grazers from the Lehigh Valley at the first grazers roundtable. Dr. Soder introduced why grazers opt for the low input system, and ways to be more efficient. Overall, grazers succeed by decreasing input and stored feeds, and increasing forage quality.

Traditionally, beef, sheep, and dairy are low margin
enterprises. Profitability can be increased by maintaining lower feed costs and
effectively marketing the final product. Luckily, there is a growing market for
local, pasture-raised meats. The key, then, is to efficiently utilize pasture.
High quality pasture is a low cost feed, and is often more palatable than a
good quality hay.

Is pasture-raised livestock lower labor? Maybe, but probably
just as much. Instead of moving manure, producers who intensively rotational
graze to earn the greatest return on their pastures will spend just as much
time, if not more, moving and building temporary fence. The production risk may
be higher because of dependence on the weather, but market risk can be lowered
by direct marketing or selling a frozen product instead of relying on commodity
pricing which typically hovers around break-even costs.

Not all livestock are genetically or behaviorally able to be
raised on pasture. Grazers need to select low maintenance animals who do not
require grain or high inputs to grow. They must make tough choices as well by
sticking to a culling program, removing animals that do not perform well on
pasture or those with temperament issues. A specific breed may or may not grow
well on pasture, but sometimes there is just as much variation within a breed
than across breeds. Dr. Soder shared research she and her colleagues have done
with sheep, noting that lambs learned what to eat by observing their
mothers. Also, dairy calves exposed to
grass before or at weaning were much more apt to graze as adults than those
calves never exposed to grass.

Dr. Soder did warn, though, that sometimes grazed animals
are not as adapted to human contact. She shared that some dairy farmers said
their wildest cows to milk were calves that grazed with their mother and later
weaned because of the lack of human contact as calves. This, of course, may not
be the same experience for everyone, but it has been the experience of some.

Grazers also may need to rely on mechanical aids to help
them be profitable. These considerations include making hay during the spring
surplus to store for the winter season when stockpiled forages have been
exhausted, or using a dog for protection in an area with predator pressure.

Constantly thinking ahead and developing a grazing plan also
help the bottom line. Successful grazers will manage for drought and regrowth
between rotations, realizing they have no or minimal control over some things
including pests or predators. However, grazers do have control over moving
stock throughout a rotation, and adjusting the rotation based on growth. Dr.
Soder displayed a simulation of “grazing” in which two pots of orchardgrass
were “grazed” to 1 inch and 3.5 inches, respectively. The pot grazed to three
inches grew back significantly faster

A common mistake is to manage for average forage production.
If this is the case, what happens during the spring flush or summer slump?
Thinking ahead and planning will help, like planning to bale certain pastures
that are later in the rotation for feeding during the winter when stockpiled
forages have been exhausted, or planting warm season grasses to graze during
the summer slump.

The grazers will continue to meet once a month throughout
the summer. If you are interested in participating in a future roundtable,
please e-mail Jodi at jlt272@psu.edu.